Annual Community Report for the 5 Year Development Plan
What a year it has been!
We started with unusually low villager numbers and a mediocre inspection report and ended with being almost full and very good inspection results.
But in between much has happened and challenges have been met.
The big concern at the yearend was announcements from local authorities that they would cut funding for the day services, telling people they would only need to, in fact must not work more than 2 or 3 days a week. In a world where the news is full of concerns about all the “economically inactive” as in off sick due to ill health, here a village of roughly 200 people who are very intend on being “economically active” was told: it’s okay not to work all week or not at all! This had significant financial implications. But we also felt that meaningful work, which is at our core, was under attack! We are a life sharing and working community! We are not just cooking, milking, stacking the shelves, producing beautiful crafts, baking, growing vegetables and carrying out administrative tasks for pleasure or as therapeutic activity. We do it because it is needed and we are needed!
We are homemakers, gardeners, bakers, sales assistants, administrators, makers!
This is the economic sphere in which money lives and moves, but not only the money is going back and forth; people’s needs and the meeting of those needs are going back and forth, too, weaving a tapestry of products, services, compassion, activity, solidarity and human connections.
After all the economic or business sphere is the social sphere of Humanity.
These cuts led to many challenging conversations with other agencies. But at the same time led to connecting with many other organisations and providers in the region. And the connection and conversations that grew out of this were something very positive.
We wanted to raise awareness and turned to our local politicians. Many of them took the time and came or at least spoke with us on Zoom: MSPs, our MP and local councillors. Their words were very supportive.
Another positive development was that some parents connected and started to form a group who works together on issues. Something that has been missing for a while. The family and friends of Newton Dee group is now firmly established and meets once a month.
The funding cuts combined with the sudden departure of some of our more elderly villagers who were moving into care homes, led to precariously low numbers and a budget that would need to bite into our reserves.
And building work was about to start on our new £2 million Bakery and Confectionery!
It looked as if this too, we would bite into our reserves a lot!
We said, we need to do fundraising and signed up for the Kiltwalk, which raised 0.5% of the project costs. A ridiculously small amount, but a day of great fun and few blisters with a little bit of a PR effect!
Juan and others applied for larger grants, a new process full of pitfalls and challenges. So far we have not been successful, but we have become a living wage employer in the process.
And then suddenly many new people joined!
Luckily, Columba refurbishment was completed and Victoria’s family together with John moved there and they soon were joined by 3 new villagers!
Four people joined us from Tigh A Chomain. Up to Covid they were very familiar faces in Newton Dee coming to work or to the Café or joining events! It is good to have them back and as residents! A very warm Welcome to All of them!
Linda Shepherd, our inspector, commended on how Newton Dee, in this case especially Welfare group and the House Co-ordinators, had made the moves possible in a very short time and had ensured swift action and a smooth transition! A big Thank you to all those who were involved in those moves!
After a bumpy start to the year, the waves have calmed.
Now we have 80 Villagers in Newton Dee. It might even go up to 81 soon!
But it was also a year of leaving parties: Heather, Pauline, Aron, Spencer, Gordon, Raymond and Diane, Catherine, Louise were just some of the people who left throughout the year!
They leave big gaps, some of which have been filled again. Ruaridh took on the metal shop, Steven (and his dog) have joined the office, David and Sebastian are running the Toyshop, Corina has taken over Heather’s task, Lee has joined the welfare office and a group of younger villagers have joined us which is lovely and helps to blow the cobwebs away! New bank staff has joined Newton Dee, too. And last, but not least, Catherine has rejoined as a trustee!
Many of the Villagers are keen to get involved. We organised a meeting with delegates from different houses and it was a very lively conversation. Things and wishes on people’s mind are:
- To be more involved in the cultural programme.
- Re-enlivening the ND podcast
- Our long-term financial and social resilience
- Support when new people join the community and how to integrate and include the Day Placements better.
- Ideas for the Old Bakery!
- Ecological consciousness and projects
- Involvement of more people at the Newton Dee Meeting; increase the attendance.
- A gym for all!
Other things that are happening, too:
The new dairy is very busy. Clare and Rachel have started to make cheese on site and in August, from the US, the Dairy Girls arrived. Katie and Joy are leading a project to develop ice cream production using Newton Dee milk and cream!
Despite it being one of the driest summers in a long time, the farms and gardens have produced an amazing amount and variety of crops of outstanding quality! Simon and Kirsten in their orchard harvested and distributed 700kg of apples and made 180 litres of apple juice!
HR group is struggling with ever more difficult VISA regulations, which make it more challenging to admit volunteers from abroad. Yet, despite this, enough volunteers have applied and most of them arrived. We are still hoping for the Youth Mobility VISA in the not-so-distant future.
Despite all these challenges and changes HR group manage to recruit a group of co-workers and employees with, in comparison to other organisations, very little turnover and a great amount of stability in houses and workshops!
Now HR group is looking already for another Baker to join the team, because the Bakery and Confectionery project is in full swing and we are starting to believe CHAP when they said they would be done in 22-25 weeks!
Those, of us who work with the young people realise that we support and accompany them with different issues compared to ten years ago. Young people arrive with much compassion, awareness and often clear views and opinions, however, more often do we need to embrace and facilitate support with mental health issues. Is Covid to blame? Our Zeitgeist? The overall fragmented political landscape full of conflicts? We don’t know. And sometimes we have to say: This is more than we can support.
Amongst the long term co-workers we have similar things to balance. We want to be supportive, help each other to be well and embrace our vulnerabilities and sticky patches in life. On the other side there is our responsibility towards the organisation Newton Dee Camphill Community, a commitment to deliver excellent social care according to our and outside agencies’ standards.
Can we expect accountability and be kind to each other at the same time? There must be a way to combine the two!
Do service and self-actualisation exclude each other or can they complement each other? Most people do not get overexcited about Health & Safety, but still, just like cleaning toilets, it needs to be done. There is a group of faithful people, who do this service, who keep us safe, implement good practice and keep us up to date with safety requirements.
Regarding our budgets do we just want to be thrifty, managing with less, cutting back even at the expense of our quality of work, or are we bold and say:
We deliver a high quality of service and products. This is what it costs! This is what it’s worth!
We try to be a little bit less conservative and more confident when budgeting. Within finance group and welfare group we have conversations regarding changing to a package fee and charge for what we offer as a whole.
With fundraising we are still finding our way. Shall we just continue to earn our money through honest work and produce as much as we can in our workshops, shops and on the land while continuing the good support we give and just do what we are good at?
These are the questions we are also mulling over in our Commonweal group. We gave ourselves a new name, dealt with much self-doubt and doubt from others, about whether the Gross National Happiness was the right approach to Quality Management in Newton Dee. We launched our first questionnaire at a community festival in May. It turned out to be “Sunshine on Newton Dee”!
People responded with enthusiasm and touching openness! The questionnaire is not perfect; we will continue to work developing this tool. And we need to get better at making sure that identified area of improvement actually are being improved!
It was poignant that just before Michaelmas Tho Ha Vinh passed away. Also, a ‘Camphiller’, who had worked in Bhutan, and then done so much to introduce this GNH framework all over the world.
Last month Commonweal received endorsement from a very unexpected source! The Care Inspectorate! We felt confirmed in what we knew is the case; GNH or the concept of wellbeing economy is a well-established and recognised approach used in businesses, health & social care, charities and by the Scottish Government!
What are other future tasks and projects?
Education group in their report inserted this wonderful quote regarding Spiritual Care in the NHS:
“The provision of spiritual care by NHS staff is not yet another demand on their hard-pressed time. It is the very essence of their work, and it enables and promotes healing in the fullest sense to all parties, both giver and receiver, of such care”.
From the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) called “Spiritual care matters”.
There is more to our life than work and groups like Education, Spiritual life and Culture group are seeing to this. Education and Training’s purpose is not only to provide certificates for mandatory training. Education and training is nourishment and personal development, as is our cultural life. It is where the cup is being refilled.
- In a few weeks’ time, the next big play will be performed a group of co-workers, employees and villagers! Moliere’s The Hypochondriac. And the calendar is booked full with concerts and other cultural events, homemade and by visiting artists.
- There is a lot of interest in education and continuous learning. Study groups about Anthroposophy and Camphill values are starting, many people are studying nutrition in a new way.
- We want to uphold our impulse for life sharing and complement it with professionalism and best practice.
- We organised a Folk & Craft festival in August showcasing good music and all the crafts and foods made in Newton Dee. It looks as if it was not a one-off and will become an annual event.
- We probably will do the Kiltwalk again.
- Plans for the Roadside Cottage site are ready for planning application.
- The land and other community members are planning to increase food processing, including ice cream! Possibly in the old confectionery.
- We would like to improve and develop spaces for the Day Placements. The idea is to cook lunches in the old bakery/confectionery and have a larger space for them to spend time during lunch hour.
- And Welfare Group is continuing to build up a waiting list and will organise more working visits. So, more new faces in the future!
Last week somebody said to me: the excellence in Newton Dee seems to be achieved out of hours, meaning the normal working day is just enough to keep the daily essential tasks performed. If you want to achieve outstanding results, as in not just ice cream, but with caramel crumble on top, you make those crumbles at midnight. Camphill and Newton Dee are not the only place where this is the case!
Time use, one of the areas identified as needing to be addressed: Could we all do less? Could we distribute the work load better amongst us? Let go of some of our high standards, recruit more people, be more efficient when we are fulfilling our tasks? Another question to work with! And hopefully to find more clarity and something to get better at over the next few years!
So, big projects, but also big questions to reflect on and hopefully we will find some answers. Enough to fill the next five years and beyond! Kristina Christanson, together with the Commonweal Group